Dive Brief:

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is sending out “chip-and-PIN” enabled credit cards to holders of its store-branded MasterCards that they will receive “within weeks,” the retailer announced Monday.

• The parent retailer of Sam's Club and Walmart stores already provides "EMV" credit cards to Sam’s Club members, which have been available since June. 

• The new cards bring along added rewards features, too, including $5 back for each $500 spent, 15 cents off gas until Sept. 8, and five cents off after that.

Dive Insight:

Target announced a partnership with MasterCard to develop and send out EMV-security store-branded credit cards by early 2015, an acceleration of a planned program already in place. It’s unclear, actually, whether EMV technology could have prevented the now-notorious Target breach last year. For whatever reason, it is Wal-Mart Stores that has beat them, of all retailers, to the punch and created added security before the holiday retail rush this year.